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Stock Can Take a Fall Break

By Mark Bittman September 11, 2008 4:40 pmSeptember 11, 2008 4:40 pm

(Evan Sung for The New York Times)

I’m not anti-stock. In fact, I love the stuff. But it’s not always practical to make it. Enter water-based soups, which after all are the original. (And stock, when you think about it, is just water with flavorings anyway.) There are a few in this week’s Minimalist column. Ideas for others welcome.

And regarding any delays you might have experienced posting comments to Bitten — we were doing some work on the system, but everything should be fully functional now, so give it another try.

I could not function without a readily available supply of stock. Since I do not run a restaurant, however, keeping a constantly bubbling stockpot on the back burner is not feasible. The solution I have found is that every time I cut up a chicken (which is pretty often), I put the back, neck, gizzard, heart and wingtips in a ziplock bag and freeze it. Then, once a year or so, I devote a day to making a big pot full of stock, whch I then freeze in plastic containers. Since I only need to do it about once a year, I can make the stock right, boiling it for long enough to give it adequate flavor and body. Thank God for the freezer.

Michael Ruhlman has convinced me to give up canned stock, and since I am usually too lazy to make stock, I almost always use plain water now. If it works with the soup, I add flavor with white or red wine, or brighten the soup at the end with a splash of vinegar. I have yet to notice any lack of flavor or substance when not using canned or boxed stocks.

I agree that some soups just don’t need stock. Simple tomato soups, like your late summer minestrone, come to mind. So do cream soups and puréed vegetable soups.

In the spring and summer, I’ll sauté a whole lot of onions or leeks in butter, add a vegetable like peas, watercress or carrots, add a fresh herb, purée, and sometimes add cream. With a green salad and fresh summer tomatoes, it’s bliss.

I dunno.. that long-held bias of preferring to use stock over water will be hard for me to get past.

I haven’t yet been able to integrate homemade stock into my routine. I’m flexitarian; I eat mostly vegetarian but I use chicken stock and parmesan reggiano cheese and bacon when appropriate, but I don’t buy chicken. So I tell myself that the stock in the UHT cartons is ‘better’ than the canned stuff.

Between you and Mr. Ruhlman, you may yet succeed in prying that carton from my clutches.

Busy workdays and small studio kitchens make it difficult to keep stock in stock. (Forgive the pun)

Oddly enough, I tried out the water-soup trick with last week’s garbanzo salad. I sautéed the left-overs in olive oil for a good bit, then added some cubed stale bread to thicken the mess before adding water and a bit more lemon juice to deglaze. Simmer for ~20 min. and toss in some fresh cilantro. Voila! A nice, quick, and delicate (but complex) soup!

I go one past you, Robert. Every time I roast a chicken (usually twice a month), I take all the meat off the bones and refrigerate or freeze it, then I throw the bones, skin, wing tips, and everything else into my slow cooker with four quarts of water on high for three hours, then I reduce the heat to low for twelve hours.

After it’s done I strain the stock and refrigerate it, then skim off the fat and either make soup right away or transfer it to smaller containers and freeze it. The stock is flavourful and bright yellow, and because I don’t add anything but chicken and water to it I can use it in almost any dish without worrying about, for instance, bay leaf intruding in a Chinese ginger soup.

I’ve experimented with using stock and using water in the same soup recipes, and find that with strong-flavored soups you don’t miss the stock at all, not only in terms of flavor but body as well. I suppose with stock you might be getting some more nutrition, but I wonder how many vitamins and other good things from the vegetables or meat used to make stock actually survive the cooking process.

Strong-flavored stocks, such as roasted vegetable stock (my favorite), definitely make a difference in simple soups like saffron-laced garlic broth with egg and toast. But for complex soups with flavorful ingredients I don’t notice much difference whether I use stock or water.

Where I live canned stock doesn’t exist, so of course one learns the charms of water. I make extremely reduced meat stocks of various critters I cook and freeze them in tiny containers. If I start with 4 liters of duck stock I may freeze a cup/250ml or even less.

I also try never to throw out anything with flavor or nutritive content, so water from cooking vegetables or even pasta/rice may end up getting into the act. When you live far away from most modern convenience foods, you really discover what there is in the natural. These are treasures our grandmothers knew.

After Thanksgiving and Christmas, I make rich stock from the turkey carcasses. I freeze them in 8-oz yogurt containers, and they last through the year. I generally use the last of them to moisten the following holiday’s turkey stuffing.

I was pleased to see your summer minestrone soup. I had just made something very close to yours last weekend with one (I believe) improvement: rather than toss basil leaves in to darken – cook the soup without the basil. Make a simple pesto with the basil, olive oil, garlic and salt – no nuts or cheese. Keep it on the wet side. At serving time just swirl in about 1 Tbs. into each serving. So pretty and incredibly tasty! The pesto is bright green and as it hits the hot soup, smells incredible.

I’m with Robert, though when I think about decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels (as their cost increases), the thought of leaving a burner going for hours makes me hesitate.
My plan from now on is to devote a day here and there to tending a small fire in my backyard as the pot bubbles above it. See here for more details:

You might get a kick out of the most recent entry in The Psychopedia, which concludes: “… avoid canned chicken stock. It’s a gateway drug that will eventually lead to your eventual heroin overdose on the Sunset Strip.”

My first water-not-stock soup came from either the first or second Moosewoods cookbook: gypsy soup, which started with browned onions and garlic, and added chopped green peppers and butternut squash before covering all with a can of diced tomatoes and water. (Toward the end you also add cooked chickpeas and lots of paprika.) Lots of flavor. An exceptional fall soup.

Stock might change the character of a water-only soup; but that doesn’t mean that the water-only version can’t have excellent character in its own right. Strain out the liquid and you have…..stock!

Vegetable stock out of peelings. Wash veggies throughly and save the peelings in individual freezer bags.

When there is a sufficient amount of ingredients out comes the stock pot. (Ususally done the day before trash day for fish or meat stocks so not to have to be concerned about the remains after strainingthe stock.) The veggie remains go into the composter.

Inspired by this column, for lunch today I made a water-based vegetable soup of sweated carrot, onion, red pepper and zuchini; added garlic, a chopped, peeled and de-seeded tomato and parboiled potatoes and greenbeans; finished it with frozen corn kernels and some homemade pesto and parsley– it was delicious. Might some chicken stock have improved it? Maybe. I didn’t miss it though.

This is the sort of soup that’s frequently offered as a first course in bistros throughout France. It’s delicious, versatile, inexpensive, and easy to make. Nutritious too, I gather.

I agree with Rothman. I too make stocks a few times per year and freeze them. Despite my exhaustion après Thanksgiving I find the energy to whip up some weekend turkey stock that will last me all year long. I freeze it in small disposable Tupperware containers. When I am ready to make soup, I just pop one out of the freezer. For me, this satisfies my need for simplicity along with my desire for full flavored foods.

Of course, there are others I would never think of making without stock – chicken noodle, beef barley, chicken with vegetables and rice. In these cases, though, I rarely add extra meat – the stock is the meat portion of the soup, and I add vegetables and starches.

I make and freeze stock. If I’m organized, I save the skins and dripping and bones from my chicken, augment with chicken bones from the grocery store (they sell what’s left after cutting off the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, really cheap). Tomato seeds and skins freeze well for stock, too. Then I make a really big pot, condense it, skim off the fat, and freeze in labelled freezer bags.

I’m a big believer in using the freezer, both to store scraps for making stock, and for saving stock for a later use.

I’ve recently changed my method for making stock. I bust out my jumbo 7quart slow cooker fill it up with my stock tidbits and plug it in before I go to bed. When I wake up in the morning, the stock is done. I skim & strain it, then pour it into my metal stock pot and transfer to the fridge before I go to work & it is ready to be divided up and frozen when I get home.

If I happen to get up in the middle of the night, I’ll give it a quick skim.

Making vegetable stock can be easy and basicially free if you multi-task: I just save up left over vegetable ends, peels and the like for a few days (in the fridge, of course), then when there’s enough, boil them with salt and herbs as I’m busy doing something else. I freeze this stock for later use.

I have found that many soups made with plain water always seem to be lacking a depth of flavor, a complexity if you will. However, I do think that there are some of the heartier soups (like the fall soups Mark posted here) that can do without stock (canned or otherwise).

I use commercial stock (Kitchen Basics) only in a pinch and since I, like so many others, don’t tend to buy a lot of whole chickens I tend to make a great vegetable stock and use it instead of chicken stock or water. It adds a dimension to my soups that water just can’t. the veggie stock I make is Emeril’s from his Delmonico cookbook and it’s fabulous. I can post it if anyone is interested. Bon Appetit!!